Similarities Between Organic SEO and Local Search

Last month, we discussed how social media marketing is closely tied to blogging in this blog post. Today, we’ll explore the close relationship between organic search engine optimization and local search marketing.

The local search ecosystem is one of the most confusing in the world of online marketing. It’s hard to categorize it with organic SEO as it has evolved to be its very own monster. Let’s explore a few ways local search is closely related to organic search. You can’t have success if these two don’t work together!

Structured Data and Schema MarkupImplementing Schema markup involves technical knowledge of coding, as well as the discipline to maintain consistent NAP (name, address, phone) throughout all of your listings and contact information. This is one example of how organic and local search must work in unison in order to work at all! Many search marketers liken local search to SEO including something that goes beyond.

That extra factor applies to the external influence that local search deals with. Whereas you can only do so much with traditional on-page SEO, local search allows your business to go one step further to get the right exposure.

Links and Citations Go Hand in HandLinks used to be the bottom line for SEO where citations are highly sought after in local. The concept of quality over quantity applies to both these fields. So much of optimization techniques nowadays rely on the basis of credibility, trustworthiness, being diverse and natural. With that being said, you want to look at links and citations as reputable mentions that you want your business to get.

The “Unknown” Factor
Organic and local search are both like wild animals that marketers are constantly trying to wrangle. It doesn’t help that there is really no technical support in these areas (on Google’s end). They’re both plagued with crazy ranking fluctuations, sporadic testing/experiments and conflicting ideas of what Google really wants you to do. Google is quick to punish websites and suspend local listings or profiles, but aren’t as quick to explicitly tell you what is wrong so that you can correct the problem. This can lead to wild speculation, change in tactics without merit and changing other things that can further screw up your local listings! Not good… but if there’s something you can learn, it’s to 1) test, test and test 2) keep track of what you’re changing to see what it works. Whatever you do, don’t just blindly make changes and hope that a few things work out!

Local and Organic are Evolving with Mobile SearchAs mobile search results are undergoing important changes, it’s only expected that local search and organic search results will also change. With the popularity of Carousel, visibility of paid ads and increase/decrease of blending listings, it’s even more important that your organic and local search campaigns are working in cooperation with each other. The last thing you want to do is to treat them as two completely different entities that don’t need to interact with one another. If you can picture content being tied to social media marketing, it’s just as important to put organic in a box with local search. Grouping these different processes together will help you be more organized and get a better, bigger picture view of your overall online marketing plan.